It’s a Parliamentary system, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s currently has a minority government.
But check out the latest poll results from Dr. Roy:
(Click to see enlarged image from CBC)
About the Ekos poll, courtesy of the National Post:
The polling firm this morning reported that the Tories have 40.7% support among Canadians, pushing the party past the symbolic 40% mark and into majority government territory if an election was held now (which it won’t be). The Liberals trail with 25.5% support, with the NDP a distant third at 14.3%. Ekos says the Conservatives are “comprehensively ahead.”
The results put the Conservatives up a full percentage point over the polling firm’s results last week, while the Liberals, NDP and Bloc are slightly down. (Interestingly, the Greens are slightly up, with 10.5% support; they were at 9.7% last week.)
“The Liberals are under siege everywhere they turn,” Frank Graves, president of EKOS, said in a statement. “Even new Canadians, under- 25 Canadians, and the university-educated appear to be turning against them. Most stunning of all, the Conservatives now have a lead among women of almost 11 percentage points.”
The telephone survey was conducted between Oct. 7 and Oct. 13, 2009, for CBC. It included 2,729 Canadians and is considered accurate within 1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
There are a total of 308 seats, and Harper needs 155 to have a majority. The projection from this poll that the Conservatives would get more than 155 seats, and get their majority, if the election were held today. Anything better than 40% usually means a majority.
To compare, here are the results from the last federal election, held on October 14, 2008:
- The Grown-Ups (Conservatives) got 37.7%
- The Socialists (Liberals) got 26.3%
- The English Communists (New Democrats) got 18.8%
- The Green Communists (Greens) got 6.8%
- The French Communists (Bloc Quebecois) got 10.0%
Here’s a map that show who voted for whom:
A “minority” government means that you need the support from another party to get over the 155 barrier so that you can pass a piece of legislation.
WINTERY KNIGHT 